222 THE CHIEF SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL CROPS 



spraying with Bordeaux mixture is the recognized 

 remedy. To be effective this must begin early in 

 the season. The first application should be given 

 before the flowers open and a second as soon as the 

 petals have fallen. As a rule it is not wise to spray 

 plants of any kind when in full bloom as there is 

 danger of interfering with pollination. Usually a 

 third and fourth application should be given at in- 

 tervals of ten days to two weeks. In practice Paris 

 green is added to the Bordeaux mixture for all 

 except the first application, the combined spray thus 

 serving to prevent injury from the codling moth 

 and from the cankerworm and other leaf-eating 

 insects and at the same time giving protection from 

 scab and other fungous troubles. 



At the South bitter rot (^Sphceropsis') must be 

 included among the very serious apple diseases. It 

 attacks the unripe fruit while still hanging on the 

 tree, covering it with large blackened areas. If 

 examined closely, the surface of these areas will be 

 found to be more or less thickly covered with minute 

 pustules that break up through the epidermis of the 

 leaf. These are the fruiting bodies of the fungus 

 and contain the spores by means of which the disease 

 is disseminated. The same fungus also attacks the 

 larger branches, killing the bark and causing sunken, 

 more or less distorted areas called cankers. It is 

 here that it passes the winter. The careful cutting 

 out of all such centers of contagion during the 

 winter together with repeated sprayings with Bor- 

 deaux, as recommended for the scab, will largely pre- 

 vent injury, but the disease is a very difficult one to 



